Gleaners Food Bank Set to Feed More Indiana Children with Automated Assembly Line

Written By: Bastian Solutions

Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana supports a wonderful initiative called the BackSacks program, which provides six weekend meals to children from low-income families. Typically, these children are part of the free and reduced lunch program, which enables them to get the nutrition they need through the week. However, these same children often go hungry during weekends–eating school lunch on Friday and then not eating again until Monday.

To combat this, Gleaners started the BackSacks program which provides 3,000 BackSacks every weekend to children in need. In an effort to expand that program to 21 Indiana counties–an additional 7,000 BackSacks every weekend–Gleaners turned to Bastian to design and fabricate a custom assembly line to automate its previously slow, manual process.

Below is a short video on how Bastian helped Gleaners expand the BackSack program.

The volunteers from Finish Line Foundation shown in the video were able to fill 430 bags (2,580 meals) per hour that day. At that rate, and with the necessary volunteers, Gleaners should be able to easily match its goal of 10,000 BackSacks each week.

Bagging Carousel Specifications:

¾ HP SEW Eurodrive motor with Rexnord 2500-TAB Multiflex chain

29 bagging pallets (donated by Kroger Grocery Company) circulate on the carousel, which is surrounded by 15 volunteer workstations

Size of the unit equals 28’L x 5’W x 4′ H and the unit is made of standard carbon steel and steel square tubing